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Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

pragli.com

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Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#131

Post by CathedralBorrow »

nnq wrote: post #104

> quick, synchronous audio/video communication between teammates ..."kill it with fire" or other equivalent meme is the proper response to this, no matter how wonderfully it is executed. Really, what everyone needs is more asynchronous communication and less attention draining and less interruptions! This can only help very small teams of extroverts with very-very-similar personalities work, it brings HELL for everyo…

I'll never tire of these responses to use case stories that essentially state:

"This is wrong because it doesn't work for me. Really, what everyone needs is more of what works for me."

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#132

Post by hawski »

It's not the same, but I'm using Zello (IP walkie-talkie basically) with my wife and it is very convenient. For example when we are in a shop or have to quickly sync on something, especially if you have children. I imagine it could be quite helpful for remote work, but it depends on many factors, work time is one of them.

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#134

Post by _jal »

jrd79 wrote: post #128

My business partner and I have been working remotely with each other for the last 5 years, after a previous 7 years in a shared office. To make it work, we bought dedicated iPads and put them on stands next to our computer monitors on our desks. We start a FaceTime call at the beginning of each day and literally leave it running all day. We mute when not actively talking, so we can listen to music (and not listen to…

Aside from scaling problems, there are comfort/trust issues. I can only imagine doing this with certain people.

Which is really odd, considering I work in an office. Somehow the artificiality, the fact that it isn't a human puttering around near me, but a plane of glass doing magic makes a difference for me. But then I don't litter my home with surveillance speakers, either.

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#135

Post by _jal »

Zenst wrote: post #125
IanCal wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an extrovert and I'd like this for people asking me questions. Want to disturb me for 2 minutes and ruin my concentration losing me half an hour? If it's going to save you your afternoon - just do it. If you're probably going to send me a message on slack or call me there anyway I'd find this a lot less annoying. My goal should never be to get through the most work myself it's to move the company forwards. Ha…

Instant messaging allows you to set status and busy messages - alas the interface isn't organic as changing it would also disturb your flow. Also the ability to control actions based upon what status you set is not granular or controllable enough. For example - if busy - only allow some people to send video mail message or IM for later perusal or if some people contact allow them thru if call more than twice, three t…

> Instant messaging allows you to set status and busy messages

That requires people to use and respect them. Half the folks on I use the corporate chat with are permanently "away", and "busy" appears to mean "walk over and bug me".

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#136

Post by squarefoot »

jrd79 wrote: post #128

My business partner and I have been working remotely with each other for the last 5 years, after a previous 7 years in a shared office. To make it work, we bought dedicated iPads and put them on stands next to our computer monitors on our desks. We start a FaceTime call at the beginning of each day and literally leave it running all day. We mute when not actively talking, so we can listen to music (and not listen to…

If every broadband connection had its own public IP, that would be trivial to implement in a point to point way using any IP phone software out there (linphone for example) without any need for a central server. IPv6 once widely implemented might solve the problem, since new fixed IPv4 addresses are unobtanium for non corporate networks; I'm not holding my breath though.

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#137

Post by dwild »

IanCal wrote: post #121
nnq wrote: post #104

> quick, synchronous audio/video communication between teammates ..."kill it with fire" or other equivalent meme is the proper response to this, no matter how wonderfully it is executed. Really, what everyone needs is more asynchronous communication and less attention draining and less interruptions! This can only help very small teams of extroverts with very-very-similar personalities work, it brings HELL for everyo…

I'm not an extrovert and I'd like this for people asking me questions. Want to disturb me for 2 minutes and ruin my concentration losing me half an hour? If it's going to save you your afternoon - just do it. If you're probably going to send me a message on slack or call me there anyway I'd find this a lot less annoying. My goal should never be to get through the most work myself it's to move the company forwards. Ha…

> If it's going to save you your afternoon - just do it.

That's the thing, will it actually be used like that? This feel so casual that it doesn't feel like it has to be used in urgent matter only.

I guess the important thing isn't about the tools but mostly about the training the user got around the tools. It's important to show what each one is used for and in which context. It's so easy to just believe something is more urgent than it is.

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#139

Post by codingdave »

tommoor wrote: post #21

I have worked remotely for 10 years and raised VC funding for an idea very similar to this in the past – we failed to build a sustainable business, although the product did have a couple of hundred teams that swore by the product. In hindsight I believe it's because we were following the startup mythology of "building a solution for the problem that you have" a little too closely. We failed to realize that this is re…

To add to that, it is also a problem that new remote teams have. When working with others who have been remote for years, we simply have learned how to use async communication for almost everything, and we just start up a slack call when we need to share a screen.

On the other hand, new remote teams are still trying to continue their habits from being in an office, so they want constant, easy communication. To me, this product sustains unwise habits more than it solves a problem.

But to each their own -- all teams are different, as are communications styles. I'm not going to say that products like this are bad ideas... just that the market is more narrow that people might believe.

Re: Building a walkie-talkie for remote work

#140

Post by jrd79 »

_jal wrote: post #134
jrd79 wrote: post #128

My business partner and I have been working remotely with each other for the last 5 years, after a previous 7 years in a shared office. To make it work, we bought dedicated iPads and put them on stands next to our computer monitors on our desks. We start a FaceTime call at the beginning of each day and literally leave it running all day. We mute when not actively talking, so we can listen to music (and not listen to…

Aside from scaling problems, there are comfort/trust issues. I can only imagine doing this with certain people. Which is really odd, considering I work in an office. Somehow the artificiality, the fact that it isn't a human puttering around near me, but a plane of glass doing magic makes a difference for me. But then I don't litter my home with surveillance speakers, either.

I felt "watched" for the first week, then it is just normal, like working in an office. The difference disappears.
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